A wide variety of vehicles including automobiles, trucks, sport utility vehicles and recreational vehicles, are equipped with a trailer hitch arrangement. The trailer hitch is conventionally attached to or near (usually below) the vehicle's rear bumper. The conventional trailer hitch arrangement includes a trailer ball that can be coupled to a socket having a shape and size to receive the trailer ball. The socket is fitted to the trailer itself. The trailer ball is coupled to the socket and is secured in place by a locking arrangement.
Some trailer hitches are little more than a flat bar attached at one end to the vehicle and having the trailer ball attached at the other end. More sophisticated trailer hitch arrangements, that is, those designed generally for pulling larger loads include a receiver attached to the vehicle and a drawbar that can be inserted or removed from the receiver as desired. The trailer ball is attached to one end of the drawbar while the other end is inserted into the trailer hitch receiver. A hitch pin is inserted to hold the drawbar to the hitch receiver. A spring cotter pin holds the hitch pin in its position.
The towing industry presently uses two trailer hitch architectures for those hitches that utilize a receiver for a drawbar. For trailer ratings equal to or below 20,000 lbs., the largest drawbar is 2½″ inches and utilizes a ⅝″ hitch pin. For trailer ratings higher than 20,000 lbs., a 3″ drawbar having a ¾″ hitch pin is used. This latter application typically arises in the farming industry.
In the event that the operator elects to use a 2½″ drawbar with a hitch rated higher than 20,000 lbs. capability (this combination being a standard 3″ receiver with a ¾″ hitch pin hole), a 3″ to 2½″ reducer sleeve is installed into the receiver. However, to accommodate the ¾″ pin and the ¾″ pin hole of the standard 3″ receiver, users are required to enlarge the ⅝″ pin hoe of the drawbar because most aftermarket ⅝″ pins associated with 2½″ hitch and drawbars are not rated higher than 20,000 lbs. But the ¾″ hitch pin associated with the 3″ hitch or drawbar is the only aftermarket pin rated higher than 20,000 lbs.
Accordingly, known approaches to modifying a hitch receiver to accommodate drawbars having reduced dimensions have not produced satisfactory results. As in so many areas of vehicle technology, there is always room for improvement related to trailer hitch systems for a vehicle.